Posted on 03/23/2003 4:23:45 AM PST by wiseone
http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/home.html
Only shame will remain for our country
By PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
As the war against Saddam Hussein continues on schedule -- so far, one of history's most effective campaigns -- a wise decision by the Americans was to have journalists with individual units.
To some, this is a radical departure -- an issue of controversy inside the military, from those who remember Vietnam and what they viewed as treasonous media.
This war is different -- even from the Gulf War, when the media were curtailed to press conferences and escorted into forward areas only after they had been secured, to witness what had happened, not what was happening.
This new policy of journalists with the troops is credited to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a former Navy pilot of the Korean war who has radically changed the U.S. army into a mobile, versatile, strike-fast military as opposed to massive armies of superior numbers.
Journalists with front-line troops is a throwback to WWII, when the best reporting came from the frontlines. Reporters shared dangers, understood the problems, identified with soldiers.
For years, some of us have urged that the Canadian army put journalists in with the regiments on exercises and on missions. Let soldiers speak, and trust the reporter's discretion, judgment, common sense.
Sometimes this happens, but rarely. The only journalist I know whom Canadian soldiers in the field seem to trust implicitly is TV documentary-maker Garth Pritchard. And DND has mixed feelings about his reports. The value -- and maybe the rationale -- for having media with the troops in this war, is more than just "educating" them to understand the military. It is because the army wants witnesses.
There's a feeling Saddam might have Iraqi civilians killed, and blame American troops. If journalists visited the scene later, they wouldn't know for sure. With reporters at the front, they are independent witness to the truth. Rumsfeld is aware that in the Balkans, civilians were massacred by one side (Bosnia) and blamed on the other side (Serbs). Witness the Sarajevo marketplace.
As it is, reporting of this war has been exceptional -- with the exception of the CBC, which pulled its staff out of Baghdad, and reports mostly from the periphery. CBC Radio, of course, mostly concentrates on those who oppose the war. One item I heard involved 100 anti-American protesters in Pakistan, for heaven's sake, and a Quebec school class protesting for peace in Ottawa.
Like many, I've never felt so awkward being a Canadian -- and it's not just that I may be more militant than some fellow citizens.
I guess I'm a bit different, having served in the military in WWII and Korea, and as a journalist have reported from 30 or 40 wars, civil wars, revolutions, crises in the past.
But it's not just that.
It's shame in our prime minister and fellow Liberals who smear Americans.
For me, Stephanie Nolen's report from northern Iraq for Saturday's Globe and Mail said it all. "What's the matter with you Canadians?" she was asked by Kurds, most of whom have access to satellite TV. "Why is your country not allied with Untied States? Why does your prime minister speak against the war? Do you support Saddam?"
Nolen wrote: "For the Kurds, it is a straightforward equation: Saddam is a genocidal madman, he won't go without a fight, and they cannot overthrow him themselves. The United States has finally stepped up to the plate. Nobody expected the Canadian army to liberate Baghdad -- but to oppose the war? That's too much."
I tell you, the Kurds also speak for me. And, I suspect for other Canadians, and everyone who wears the uniform of Canada. When this war is over, and Iraqis are liberated, only shame will continue for Canada
Fans cheer Yank anthem
By HIMANI EDIRIWEERA, TORONTO SUN
Outspoken hockey icon Don Cherry was in fine form last night when he booed Habs fans for knocking the American anthem.
He apologized on behalf of Canadians and stood firm that "years of pride went down the drain" with Habs fans' behaviour Thursday in Montreal.
Last night 19,372 Toronto fans cheered at the Air Canada Centre when Jackie Richardson belted out The Star Spangled Banner before the game between the Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres.
"There was a standing ovation here tonight. I don't think that's going to make CNN," Cherry said.
WAR OF WORDS
Last night Montreal fans, in an apparent change of heart, cheered the American national anthem before the Canadiens' win over the Hurricanes.
But down in Florida, disgruntled American fans booed O Canada before the Ottawa Senators' victory over the Florida Panthers.
A war of words erupted on Hockey Night in Canada between Cherry and co-host Ron MacLean over what Cherry called Canada's "lack of support to our American friends."
"I hate to see them go it alone. We have a country that comes to our rescue, and we're just riding their coat-tails," Cherry said.
Indeed not. That makes two of us.
Give 'em hell, America. Sorry we won't join you.
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